REDMOND
˜
.com
REPORTER EPORTER ORTER
NEWSLINE: 425.867.0353
OPINION | Family discusses drowsy driving prevention [4] CRIME ALERT | Redmond Police Blotter [3]
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2014
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
COMMUNITY | ‘Thrill the World’ creeps into Redmond Town Center [14]
Local startup’s test satellite destroyed in launch explosion ANDY NYSTROM anystrom@redmond-reporter.com
A tweet from Redmond’s Planetary Resources rolled out late Tuesday evening: “A3 was just a robot! We are making more.” Earlier that day, an un-
manned Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket “suffered a catastrophic failure” shortly after its 6:22 p.m. (EDT) lift-off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., according to Orbital and Planetary Resources.
NASA’s emergency operations officials reported that no one was injured when flaming debris fell to the ground on the south end of Wallops Island. The rocket was carrying supplies to the International Space Station and
also had the Redmond startup’s first technology demonstrator, the Arkyd (A3) test satellite, on board. Prior to the launch, the startup tweeted: “Less than 3 minutes to the launch of #ARKYD A3!! We’re excited!!”
After the explosion, another tweet: “Live to fly another day. Onward!” “As this launch failure and history have demonstrated, spaceflight is inherently risky. The A3 is the first example of our strategy to ‘use space as our testbed,’ and to toler-
ate failures by building success into the development path,” said Stacey Tearne, vice president of communications for Planetary Resources, which develops technology for mining asteroids. [ more LAUNCH page 7 ]
Local hospitals are prepared for all kinds of emergencies earlier this month. “First and foremost our thoughts are with the Following the shootings families impacted by the at Marysville-Pilchuck tragic events that ocHigh School (MPHS) on curred at Marysville-PilOct. 24, questions have chuck High School,” said been raised about how Redmond Police Chief prepared local Ron Gibson folagencies are for lowing last week’s such an event. “UnfortuMARYSVILLE- events. As previously nately, with these reported, the PILCHUCK types of events Redmond Police SHOOTING occurring more Department frequently, we (RPD) collabomust continue to rated with the prepare and imRedmond Fire Departprove our response protoment (RFD) and Redcols in order to minimize mond Office of Emergen- the loss of life.” cy Management (OEM), In a letter on its website as well as Redmond following last week’s High School (RHS) and shootings, LWSD SuperLake Washington School intendent Dr. Traci Pierce District (LWSD) on an said, “All of our schools active-shooter exercise [ more SHOOTING page 7 ] SAMANTHA PAK
spak@redmond-reporter.com
Players celebrate a goal during Monday afternoon’s Microsoft employee/Special Olympics soccer match to celebrate Microsoft’s multi-year technology partnership with Special Olympics to help them modernize operations by moving to the cloud. ANDY NYSTROM, Redmond Reporter
Scoring a ‘game-changing’ partnership ANDY NYSTROM anystrom@redmond-reporter.com
Nice weather. A soccer match. A partnership between Microsoft Corp. and Special Olympics. Monday’s hat trick at the Microsoft commons area was both playful and emotional for those involved in the announcement of a multi-year technology alliance to help Special Olympics modernize its operations by moving to the cloud. Microsoft’s cloud will be home base for Special Olympics’ game-management system for its 80,000
competitions per year in more than 170 countries and for 4.5 million athletes. Big upcoming events are the 2015 World Summer Games in Los Angeles and the 2017 World Winter Games in Austria. Lisa Brummel, Microsoft’s vice president of human resources, said this relationship ties in with the company’s Employee Giving Campaign. “It’s a time when we spend time donating time, donating money to our community in the hopes of making this world a better place,” she said during the opening ceremony. [ more CLOUD page 8 ]
Microsoft cuts 3,000 more jobs Microsoft Corp. officials announced they were reducing 3,000 more jobs from its employee base around the world, according to microsoft-news.com on Wednesday. About 638 of the job cuts are in the Seattle region. “We’ve taken another step that will complete almost all the 18,000 reductions announced in July. The reductions happening today are spread across many different business units, and many different countries,” a Microsoft spokesman said in a statement released by the company. GeekWire reported that affected positions in this latest reduction are in support roles, including finance, human resources, sales and marketing.